Dr. Mark and Cathy Pelletier provide pastoral care and counseling to missionaries in Europe and the Middle East. From November to the 8th of December of 2004 the Pelletiers traveled around Europe and to Asian Istanbul and ministered to churches in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and visited missionaries in Poland and Turkey. What follows is Mark's report of this trip sent to supporters.
December 2004
Hi Friends,
We're back from Europe. What an amazing experience! We will never be the same. This trip was a revelation and it has made us more determined that ever to find ways to minister to the nations.
I have been in harsher cultures and seen poorer people but on this trip God broke my heart for the what I can only describe as a type of spiritual loneliness.
Whether we were talking with American missionaries or visiting local believers or watching the lives of non-Christian nationals we were overcome with the sense of isolation they live with and the desperate spiritual hunger they feel daily. I was amazed and humbled at the gratitude of Christians in Ireland and Wales for our visit. We brought so little but it meant so much to them. I was grieved for the sense of depression we saw in the faces of the people in the shops and on the streets of Poland. We felt the hurt of missionary parents wanting to make a normal life for their children in Turkey. Whether it was England or Istanbul or southern Ireland we spoke with Christians--wonderful, dedicated, passionate Christians, who were starved for Godly, faith filled relationships. Over and over again, we were told of believers who felt alone in their spiritual struggle to draw close to God.
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a family without another Christian family nearby for seven years
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teenagers forced into the streets by their parents for the crime of accepting Christ
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a county of nearly half a million people with only one small Christian bookstore
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worse yet, an entire nation with only two evangelical Christian bookstores
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missions kids with no friends after nearly a year
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people whose church has 11 adults, mostly new believers, and no pastor
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ministers who are discouraged, with no one to turn to for encouragement
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genuine believers living in a rigid, controlling society that punishes true faith
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high schoolers rejected as low class or even cultic because they are Protestant
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a women's ministry with only two members
In every town we visited and in nearly every conversation we had we were heart broken to see how much they longed to be with other believers who could encourage them and speak into their lives some word of guidance and inspiration. But the news was very good too.
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a young missionary who chooses to live in a run down, high crime housing project because that's where the people live he wants to reach
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we conducted training with a church that wants to reach its community with more effective pastoral care
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we preached to a gathering of believers from across their county who meet monthly to pray for their community
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we learned about small teams of young people who clean up their neighborhood streets and store fronts to bless others
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we met people who conduct outreaches that are drawing the spiritually desperate from lives of hopelessness
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we joined with a dozen other Americans to celebrate Thanksgiving and to give thanks for the privilege of serving Him
The contrast between what we enjoy here in the states and what believers live with in other nations, especially in Europe and the Middle East, is incredible. Most of us have heard for years that Christianity has been losing ground in Europe, but I wonder if we really know what that means. Nations with centuries of Christian history now are almost totally devoid of any genuine faith. What believers there are, pay a price for their faithfulness that you and I probably have no idea about.
Imagine that you lived in an area of nearly half a million people (Portland, Oregon for instance) and you only knew of three churches that shared your faith, two of them with about 20 members each. And imagine that there were no parachurch ministries, no Christian radio, no Christian schools for your kids, no interdenominational meetings for fellowship or prayer, no ministerial association, no visiting ministries more than once every couple years, very few opportunities to buy Christian music or the latest Christian books, no way of staying current on the moves of God in other places, and all this while living and working and sending your children to school in a society that criticizes and distrusts you--AND YOUR KIDS--because they don't like what you believe.
Some of you are thinking that I'm describing the Moslem nation of Turkey but I'm not. I'm describing Ireland. Spiritually speaking this is a nation in crisis right now. But the same could be said of Poland and Turkey. And I suspect that it won't be long before other western European countries will be the same. That's the direction some of those cultures are taking these days. Thank God that there are those who stand firm in their love for God and their pursuit of spiritual life and liberty. God has delivered them blindness and legalistic bondage and they just want to know Him more.
These people would give a lot for the figurative crumbs that are left overs from what the typical American church and Christian enjoys all the time. I would love to see healthy, Spirit-led American churches (and groups of US believers) adopt churches in Ireland and across Europe. Not as their only foreign ministry, but as one more of their missionary commitments. Get to know a church and its people, correspond with the pastor or group leaders, pray for them, send them tapes of your weekly sermons, send good Christian books and worship music. Maybe visit them whenever you can. Or send them money to help them repair their building or help out their needy. They may be little churches of 20 or so but with a little help from an American fellowship they could be so much more effective in building the Kingdom in their nation and they could bring the Good News to so many more people.
Cathy and I want to be there to strengthen these dear people and to help build the work of God in these places. But we can't go without the support we receive from you. Whatever we are able to do to bless these people is due to you. Christians pleaded with us to make our base in their communities (three different times in three different countries). We had to explain that though God will show us where we are to locate, we can't come at all until we can firm up our budget.
As for this trip, we have been moved by an incredible need and our deep sense of the heart of God for His people in these places. Everywhere we went we were asked to come back. We know that we touched lives and encouraged leaders. We know that God sent us and that your prayers moved Him to give us favor and power as we brought His love to so many. Thank you. We are humbled in our appreciation of what you have helped happened. And we are honored that God let us be a part of it.
May God bless you with all His richest blessings.
In His Grace,
Mark and Cathy Pelletier
